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The suffix "washing" refers to the practice of portraying controversial actions in a positive light by leveraging progressive principles, often used by economic corporations, organizations, political parties, or governments. This paper introduces and develops the term "studentwashing" to define the deliberate effort to present Israeli territorial development as an attractive, youthful, and unique experience. This portrayal aims to engage larger segments of society in the national geopolitical project while normalizing its settler-colonial aspects as a means to ensure its continuation. While the constant development of new territorial settlements is dependent either on the right-wing religious sector or on the "quality-of-life" settlers, studentwashing is reserved for areas that are not ideological enough for the first nor sufficiently attractive to the latter. Analyzing "student villages" in the Negev, this paper depicts a new territorial strategy meant to enhance the state's spatial control over the predominantly Arab periphery inside official Israeli borders. Accordingly, this paper offers a new perspective on Israel's territorial strategies and enhances the general study of geopolitical and geo-economic spatial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted, in part, as a response to the horrific antisemitism leading to the extermination of millions of Jews in World War II. Yet, today, organisations that utilise human rights instruments to criticise Israel's laws, policies and practices are themselves being cast as antisemitic. How has the contemporary human rights regime come to be charged with antisemitism? The ostensible answer is that the meaning of antisemitism has expanded to include anti-Zionism and harsh criticism of Israel. While scholars have debated the validity of this expansion, this paper interrogates three types of abstractions: those deployed by traditional antisemites, those emanating from human rights, and those mobilised by the new antisemitism doctrine. An analysis of these abstractions helps clarify the new hostility between antisemitism and human rights. Whereas Zionism aims to protect Jews by asserting a right to Jewish difference within the context of a nation-state, human rights aim to protect Jews by promoting an egalitarian distribution of rights among the population. The crux of the matter is that the solution human rights offer to antisemitism also threatens the Zionist project, since it challenges the racialized mode of governance that this political ideology has implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study the Zionist narrative and the changes that have occurred over time ever since the emergence of the Zionist movement. The study starts with a theoretical section on comparative colonial settlement models, definitions of the novel, and its changes between the Zionist novel and others. In the second section, the study discusses the main components of the Zionist narrative, as classified by Bar-On, which are: gathering exiles in the Land of Israel, creating a regional space for Jews there, creating a contemporary reality for the Jewish community, achieving political sovereignty, and finaly the achievement of peace and international acceptance. The paper analyzes the intersections and differences in the novel between political Zionism, labor Zionism, revisionist Zionism (Iron Wall Zionism), and religious Zionism, and across time. The study ends with a summary of its findings, wondering about the possibility of the Zionist narrative continuation in light of the cracks it is exposed to, both internally and externally. The study is heavily based on Zionist references, and Jewish ones in particular, in order to deconstruct the narrative from within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the implementation and perception of red roofs in the context of Palestine-Israel, this paper examines how it turned into a symbol of settlercolonialism. Conducting a genealogical analysis of the use, and avoidance, of using this architectural element, this paper explains how it constantly shifted from one side to another, starting as an urban Palestinian component in the late nineteenth century, turning into a sign of Zionism, and then becoming Palestinian once again by the early 2000s. Using the framework of schismogenesis, that is, the act of self-definition through differentiation, this paper first challenges the common conception of the red roof as a foreign colonial element and shows how its appropriation and reappropriation were an integral part of national narratives. Therefore, more than asking whether red roofs are colonial or not, this paper asks when they became perceived as such, examining the consistent inconsistency of nation-building processes and their relationship to architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the question of Zion and the Diaspora pragmatically, as a question concerning the conditions necessary to ensure the continued existence of the Jewish people. My overall goal is to show that because of the differences between Jewish life in the State of Israel and the contemporary Diaspora, there is a strong difference in the challenges that confront Israeli and Diaspora Jewry; but that because of a common past (for which the adjective "Jewish" can be applied to both) on the one hand, and the global implications of the digital revolution, on the other, even these differences are rooted in a shared problematic. The first phase of discussion demonstrates that while the prevailing tendency to see the question of Zion and the Diaspora as a political one often focuses solely on contemporary issues concerning Jewish existence, a cultural view requires consideration of the past and future as well. Following this, I discuss the question of Zion and the Diaspora through the generations, noting that the continuation of Jewish life in the Land of Israel as well as in the Diaspora has historically depended upon the "midrashic" method of interpretation when confronting the junction between the diachronic and synchronic aspects of Jewish life, in order to mediate the influences coming from within and from without. The paper then considers the implications of these findings with respect to two of the major revolutions in Jewish life of the modern and contemporary periods: the effects of emancipation and the digital revolution. The final section of the paper discusses the challenges facing the existence of the Jewish people in the contemporary Diaspora and State of Israel. Here I argue that Zionism has succeeded in reconstructing, within the State of Israel, a Jewish society that carries a much greater potential for the continued existence of the Jews as a people than is possible in the Diaspora, but that because of the contemporary state of human affairs in general, it still has much to learn from Diaspora Jewry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the current policy and the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, teaching modern Hebrew from an early age to Palestinian-Arab pupils in Israel is a breakthrough in the Palestinian-Arab language education policy. It has far-reaching educational, cultural, political, and ideological consequences. The creation of modern Hebrew was central to the Zionist settler project in Palestine. Hebrew language education among Palestinian-Arab pupils has undergone radical changes regarding when and why they should begin learning the language. These topics have not been treated sufficiently in the existing literature. This paper will examine the perceptions of the parents of young Palestinian-Arab pupils regarding learning Hebrew from kindergarten onwards. Using a semi-structured interview protocol carried out via Zoom, eighteen parents were interviewed about various issues related to learning Hebrew from an early age, and the arising results were subsequently analysed. The issues concerned pedagogical, social, economic, political, and ideological factors influencing the parents' perceptions of the topic under analysis: a) a need — integrating into Israeli society; b) a difficulty — Hebrew as a burden on the learner; and c) impingement — maintenance of, and threats to Palestinian-Arab identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gap is still very deep between what happened and is still happening in Palestine since 1948, and the image that "Israel" and its supporters have been promoting around the world over the past decades. As the Zionist and Israeli narrative dominates the Palestinian narrative, distorting the truth and turning it into Judaization, we present a research paper that discusses the most prominent founding headlines of the Zionist entity and what has happened to the Palestinians in 1948 and till today. The discussion refutes and dismantles the Zionist allegations, and is based on the book titled "Ten Myths About Israel" written by the Israeli historian “Ilan Pappe”, in addition to other important books and articles written in the same field. Proving that the Zionist and Israeli claims are nothing but "myths" that tamper with the facts of history, geography, and demography, thus Judaizing knowledge and twisting history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populism and civilizationism have transformed the politics of many countries. Many scholars consider them the biggest challenges to democracy since the rise of fascism and communism in the first half of the last century. The close affinity between populism, civilizationism, and rightwing politics has also been analyzed and recognized in many countries from Turkey to India to the US. However, there are three areas that distinguish the appearance of civilizationism in Israel. First, in contrast to many other countries, civilizationism in Israel is not a new phenomenon. It has been an essential part of Israeli nationalism or Zionism since the early 20th century. Second, unlike many countries, Jewish civilizationism in Israel is an article of faith for all major Israeli political parties. It is not a slogan raised only by the rightwing, conservative part of the political spectrum. Finally, one observes an affinity between civilizationism and populism. Civilizational rhetoric is the mainstay of populist leaders, such as Trump, Erdogan, etc. In Israel, populism and civilizationism have no special relationship as civilizationism is mainstream politics. All politicians, populists and non-populists, have to pay homage to Jewish civilizationism; otherwise, they will not succeed. This paper analyzes the Israeli founding fathers' statements, the Declaration of Independence, Israeli state symbols, the revival of the Hebrew language, the Law of Return, the first debate in the Knesset, and the more recent Nation-State Law to demonstrate how Jewish civilizationism is old, mainstream, and not exclusively populist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns Let me tell you a story about Israel, a theatrical play tasked with influencing existing perceptions of the Palestine/Israel conflict amongst international audiences. Drawing on the work of philosopher Baruch Spinoza, I explore the complex issue of how to address the need to change people's political perceptions by using theatre as a form of activist persuasion. The play attempts to create an image of the conflict mostly absent in the commentaries of international observers who are unaware of the full implications of the conflict's settler colonial character. Typically, they understand it in terms of two sides competing over land, frontiers and recognition. The sense of balance that this perception conveys pre-empts coming to grips with the colonial history of Palestine beginning with the advent of Zionism from late 19th century. Such a view also obscures the nature of current forms of Israeli domination and fails to take into account a major historical factor: that the settler colonial dynamic in Palestine rests on the ways social life in Israel is organised and reproduced. Hence, the play aims to make perceptible the relation between the social mechanisms of subjectivity formation in the Israeli society on the one hand, and the everyday performance of settler colonial power on the other. Making this relation observable is a necessary step towards rethinking where change could possibly come from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to argue that the Zionist idea offers an effective lens through which we can understand the X-Men comics. Through the metaphor of mutants as Jews, Marvel has presented readers with both literal representations of Israel and what can be read as a Jewish state. Early storylines placed allegorically Jewish characters in Israel and appear to endorse the need for a mutant nation. Later comics, following shifts in international perception of Israel, feature the Israeli superhero Sabra, whose Zionist rhetoric is perennially ignored or curtailed. Most recently, the mutant nation of Krakoa, which provides safety and unity for a historically persecuted and globally-dispersed people, can be productively understood as a Zionist utopia, fulfiling the potential offered in earlier comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses representations of idleness in the fiction of Hanokh Bartov while describing the historical privatization process that Israel went through as its idea of freedom radically changed. Following recent Marxist critiques of modern Hebrew literature, it shows that in Bartov's prose, idleness functions as the image of unattainable freedom – an image that changes as Israel moves on from the statist decades of the 1950s to the neoliberal era beginning around the 1980s. Accordingly, the article demonstrates how the image of idleness reveals contradictions inhabiting each era's ideological structure. It does so by engaging "idleness" not as ahistorical and abject nonwork, but as an ahistorical, ideological concept that both derives from social relations and reflects them. Starting with Sesh knafayim le-ehad [Each Had Six Wings] (1954), this article will show how the Israeli prose of each period of time dealt with the disappearance of a utopic imagination of freedom in favor of the project of a heteronomous political making of capitalist forms of production. Here, Idleness functions as the image of the inevitable future of capitalism without a national project. Moving onto the almost unexplored "Tikuney Itzhak" [Isaac's Corrections] (1980), the article will explore the culmination of this process and the total privatization and moralization of the once-political Zionist subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the relation between religion and populism in Israel. Jewish identity has been an important marker of citizenship and belonging in Israel since its inception. The founders of the Zionist movement and the dominant elites of early statehood remained dependent upon Jewish religion to demarcate national boundaries and legitimate territorial claims. With the establishment of the state, Jewish identity helped create and legitimate a segmented citizenship regime that secured privilege for Jews. Gradually, and especially in the past two decades, Jewishness became more contested, demarcating not only Jews from non-Jews but also "authentic" Jews from allegedly "cosmopolitan elites," thus becoming part of populist politics, central to Israeli politics. The complex relation between religion and populism in Israel is demonstrated by the development of two populist parties; an "inclusive" one (Shas) and an "exclusionary" one (Likud). The study of the two parties shows the role of religious identities, tropes, and symbols in boundary-making and political strategies. In Israel, religion functions both as the positive content of the political community (the ethnos––the Jewish people—is conflated with the demos) and the demands for inclusion; and as the marker of a threat (non-Jewish citizens, asylum seekers, and allegedly disloyal secular elites). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel has been governed by coalitions since its independence. The act of coalition building not only forms governments but also serves as reaffirming the ideological and societal bounds of the state as well as reflecting implicit consensus on the identity of the state. The governance and institutionalization of ethnic and religious cleavages in either form of exclusion or accommodation have historically constructed particular coalition patterns, which this paper critically coins as the 'legitimate circle of coalition building'. The functionality of this circle has declined to the point of being narrowed and destabilised in recent decades and it has become a potential stumbling block to the formation of consistent governments. This article claims that Israel's recent political deadlock is the latest indicator of such dysfunctionality. To support this claim, this article first provides an historical account of governing contending variants of non-Zionism by putting Arab and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties in its centre to decode the traditional limitations and Achilles heel of the coalition building activity. Second, the puzzling election trio of 2019-20 is analysed as an affirmative case by examining the campaign discourse of the political parties, the election results and the allocation of parliamentary seats, as well as inconclusive negotiation talks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars see Israel as a settler state, comparable with North American, South African and Oceanian cases. But how was Jewish settlement-colonization in pre-Israel Palestine even possible? In the North American, Oceanian and South African cases, European settlers did not encounter diseases like malaria that scholars argue impede settlement. Palestine, however, had high malaria morbidity rates. The disease incapacitated and killed settlers and was one of the most serious threats to Jewish settlement and political economic development. I argue that the exigencies caused by malaria are exactly what fostered Jewish settlement-colonization in Palestine because they prompted the formation of socio-technical arrangements in order to combat the disease. These arrangements included, among other things, people, organizations, scientific knowledge, procedures and larvicides as well as considering the agency of mosquitos and other elements in the environment in disrupting settlement. These arrangements were marshalled by medical-national and political institutions that developed to combat malaria. Only then were Jewish settlers able to effectively colonize Palestine, make their colonies economically viable and make Palestine habitable for future Jewish immigrants. I demonstrate this argument by drawing on archival and library materials that describe the work of an important Zionist Malaria Research Unit (MRU) as well as malaria control efforts in Hefer Valley in the 1930s–1940s, after the unit's disbandment. Then, I discuss the theoretical implications of this paper to settler-colonial and state-building literatures that, for the most part, neglected the socio-technical nature of state-building and settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of recent developments in Israel's racial rule over the Palestinians, the Black Lives Matter protests, and in view of Israel's declared intention to annex occupied Palestinian territories, this article theorises Israel's permanent war against the Palestinians as first, state of exception, second, racial state, and third, settler-colony. The paper critiques the focus on ethnicity as an analytical frame by Israeli scholars and posits race as a key concept in analising Zionist settler-colonialism. It proposes that rather than being a solution to European antisemitism, Zionism adopted discourses of race approximating those expressed by antisemitic regimes. As the Black Lives Matter movement proliferates, the article concludes by proposing that Palestine and the question of Palestine are becoming a truly global issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to examine whether the passing of the Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People represents a transformative moment in the history of the State of Israel, as some critics claim, that undermines the State's unique democratic features precisely the principle of equality. In this respect, this paper aims to revisit the principle of equality as it is enshrined in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel and as it applies in practice, law and court rulings. Specifically, the article will explore how the principle of equality come to manifest itself in the relationship between the State and the Palestinian citizens in three key moments; first, a pre-State stage, in the making of the Declaration; second, a post establishment stage, in the granting of suffrage and citizenship rights; and third, in the aftermath of the 1992 'constitutional revolution' with the passage of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. The article argues that the Nationality Bill does not represent a transformative moment, it rather reflects a continuous process that stems from the Zionist colonial ideology in historic Palestine. Therefore, rather than transforming Israel into an undemocratic apartheid State as some critics argue, the Nationality Bill rather makes sure that the State of Israel cannot be easily transformed into the State of all its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Passover sacrifice event, conducted since 2000, is one of the Third Temple Movement's annual tirgulim (exercises), where activists "practice" offering animal sacrifices in preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Temple and advent of the messianic era. During these events, Jewish indigeneity is choreographed and embodied by the kohanim, Third Temple priests in training, who perform the sacrificial ritual onstage for hundreds of spectators. How should we place the Third Temple Movement, and the renewed desire for animal sacrifice, into the history of "socializing natives" in Israel? What kind of indigeneity is this? This paper aims to expand research on the Third Temple Movement, which has largely focused on the messianic Zionist ideologies of leading activists, by focusing on what the Passover sacrifice event has come to mean for participants, as they engage in these socialization exercises aimed at preparing them for a post-Zionist theocratic future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to explore, for the first time over a long period of time, the autobiographical memory of Israeli veterans of the 1948 War, pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian exodus that led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Does this memory include the Zionist narrative (i.e. willing flight of the Palestinian refugees) or a critical narrative (i.e. willing flight and expulsion)? One of the primary sources to influence the collective memory of conflicts is the autobiographical memory. This memory is also one of the primary sources for research of the past. Thus, autobiographical memory is of importance.Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this is done through an analysis of all 1948 veterans’ memoirs published between 1949 and 2004. Interviews were also conducted with various veterans, to understand the dynamics of their memoir publication.Findings Empirical findings suggest that during the first period (1949-1968), this memory was exclusively Zionist; during the second (1969-1978), it became slightly critical; and during the third (1979-2004), the critical tendency became more prevalent. Onward, the nine empirical causes for the presentation of exodus the way it was presented are discussed. Theoretical findings relate, inter alia, to the importance of micro factors in shaping the autobiographical memory, assembles seven such theoretical factors, suggests that these factors can influence in two ways (promoting collective memory change or inhibiting it), and that their impact can change over time.Originality/value Taken together, the paper contributes empirical and theoretical findings that are based on a solid and wide scope research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palestinian women's bodies constitute a central site of the struggle between the Zionist state and Palestinian 'citizens' in Israel. At the intersection of critical feminist and settler colonial studies scholarship and drawing on empirical data collected in 2013-2014, it will be argued here that Israel's continuous drive to control Palestinian women's bodies plays a pivotal role in the completion of the Zionist project. In line with classic settler colonial logic, this project has always closely linked native women's bodies and native land in its discourses and practices. Therefore, Zionist settler colonialism must be considered a not only racialised but also gendered process. Palestinian women's stories are complex and contradictory and cast the body as the key medium through which they experience citizenship in Israel as a continuation of settler colonialism by other means. This paper claims that it is, in fact, via citizenship that the Palestinian women's forced exclusion from the Israeli body politic is realised, thereby debunking prevailing Zionist myths of citizenship in Israel and the Nakba as a one-off event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the concept of 'land‐centred' nationalism and suggests that it is important for distinguishing among different types of nationalism and for better understanding the role of land and place in this ideology. In order to demonstrate what land‐centred nationalism actually means, the article examines Zionism as a case study, arguing that some of the leading, early intellectual schools of this national movement (cultural, socialist, and religious Zionism) tended to underscore the role of the Land of Israel in collective identity rather than the role of the political community. Despite many differences in their general outlook, these schools all celebrated the land's spiritual role while neglecting or even opposing the idea of a Jewish state. This devaluation of the bond among citizens in favour of the bond of a people with their ancient land contributed to Zionism's contemporary difficulties and manifests the dangers of land‐centred nationalism more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Druzes in Israel have been accused of being completely loyal to the Israeli state since 1948. This study will challenge the so-called “Druze–Zionist covenant”. The aim of the paper is to show that the Druze fought Zionism in 1948 and later accommodated the Israeli state as the only viable choice to survive in the land of their ancestors. For this purpose, the paper will investigate the role of the Druze community in the 1948 war, followed by the Druze struggle to preserve their Islamic and Arab identity in the face of the Israeli attempts of ethnicizing the Druze. The Druze religious establishment and some Druze elites who happen to adhere to Arab nationalism challenged the Israeli state by capitalizing on the historical ties of the Druze faith with Islam and Arabism. The policy of Israel is aimed at detaching the Druze from their Arab belongings, thus the introduction of mandatory military service to the community. The paper will conclude by explaining the Druze policy of accommodation toward the Israeli state and its relation to the concept oftaqiyah(dissimulation) from a political perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article takes the May 2021 uprising in Palestine, known as the Unity Intifada, as a prism to map old and new political geographies between coloniser and freedom-fighter, whose significance extends beyond the temporal limits of the May event. The first part of the paper investigates the role of identity and cultural geographies in re-enforcing Jewish claims to sovereignty. It shows how the Zionist production of pink (sexed/gendered), red (racializing/indigenising) and green (environmental) markers, is used to draw the contours of settler legitimacy and intensifies when faced by growing indigenous rebellion. The second part addresses the decolonising possibilities engulfing the Unity Intifada. It examines the role of youth, including women and queer collectives, and how their actions invoke new political and material taxonomies beyond the liberal peace structure to which Palestine has succumbed since the Oslo agreements. Overall, the article advances the political geographies of decolonisation by challenging the maintenance of settler colonial violence within the popular, political, and intellectual imaginary of 'Israel/Palestine.' It does so by tracing the spatial and epistemic value of decolonisation theories that extend from interactions across indigenous, queer feminist, critical race, and eco-materialist debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the political and personal duel between Golda Meir and Bruno Kreisky. In 1973, the two Socialist statesmen of Jewish origin clashed over the issue of Palestinian terrorism directed against Jewish transit via Vienna, triggering an almost decade-long bilateral crisis between Israel and Austria. For the purpose of better understanding the roots of their animosities, this paper traces and compares the biographies and mind-sets of the two heads of state, arguing that it was the Inner-Jewish divide between Zionist and Diaspora Jews that led to bitter personal and political conflict between Golda Meir and Bruno Kreisky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the political behaviour of religious groups in a democratic setting. In particular, it suggests an explanation as to why the same religious group might adopt very different modes of engagement with the state, over the same issues, at different times. The proposed framework combines two components: (1) a communitarian understanding of civil society; and (2) the concept of bifurcated loyalty which grasps the unique tension experienced by religious groups in democratic regimes, and its effect on their political behaviour. I go on to apply this framework in the case of religious Zionism in Israel. This case, which explores important events and trends in the history of the religious Zionist group in Israel, with special emphasis on the post-1967 era, nicely demonstrates the shifting strategies of engagement of this group with the state. The behaviour of this group ranged from constructive collaboration through participation in government to outright violent clashes with the state. Such dramatic changes expose the link between changing levels of bifurcated loyalty and political behaviour in response to changes in state policies towards religious actors and contents. The paper concludes with a brief discussion about the general applicability of such an approach to the study of religious groups in democratic politics and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite their impressive patterns of economic mobility and generally successful adaptation into Western host societies, Israeli emigrants frequently view their stay abroad through the perspective of Zionism. As such, they express ambivalence about their presence on foreign soil. They seldom describe themselves as host country nationals, commonly socialize with other Israelis, frequently describe their intentions to return home, and often do so. However, recent events may challenge this outlook. During the 1990s, Israel's significant demographic and economic growth, relatively peaceful relations with neighbouring countries and increasingly globalized economy had the effect of lessening the stigma on going abroad. Then, since the fall of 2000, Israel has been rocked by the Al Aksa Intifada, as well as a major recession. These events have made life more difficult for Israelis. Accordingly, conditions of the last several years can be seen as altering Israelis' motives for emigration and simultaneously shifting the probability of return among those already overseas. While a topic of interest in its own right, the experience of Israeli emigrants since late 2000 also offers a natural experiment for evaluating how theories about migrant transnationalism consider the consequences of specific events upon relations with citizens abroad. This paper relies on in-depth interviews and other data sources to explore Israeli emigrants' views about remaining in host societies versus returning to Israel since late 2000. In so doing, it considers how emigrants evaluate potential benefits, costs and feelings of identification associated with residence overseas versus Israel. The paper also seeks more general insights into how relations between migrants and the country of origin are altered when events affect political and economic conditions in the country of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nature, background, and evolution of the 'Camp David consensus.' Under this consensus, Egyptian intellectuals and political movements broadly accept that the Egyptian regime must deal constructively and 'correctly' with Israel as a state, but insist that society has the right and responsibility to resist Zionism. The consensus rests on particular ways of understanding Israel, and the nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict, that can be traced back to the formative years of the Egyptian republic under Nasser. This has served the interests of both regimes and opposition movements and in this sense represents a 'double instrumentalization' of foreign policy. The paper, which examines a range of regime and intellectual pronouncements during the Nasser and Sadat periods, as well as more recently, challenges the growing use within International Relations, particularly in the Middle East context, of the concept of 'identity' to explain state behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the late nineteenth century, the Zionist movement emphasized ruralism not only for the pastoral areas of Palestine, but also for its urban centres. This paper explores the emergence of Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew town, in the light of the Zionist rural/pastoral ideology and within the late nineteenth century discourse on city planning. It discusses early Tel Aviv's rural images and the various means that were implemented by local and international planners, Zionist cultural agents, volunteer organizations and residents in order to materialize the green vision for the first Hebrew town. This paper argues that till the mid-1930s, the development of Tel Aviv discarded the common modern dichotomy of nature/culture or pastoral/urban, proving that the development of the rural, agricultural landscape and the construction of the urban metropolis were complementary facets of the Zionist dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the socio-spatial impact of the Zionists' colonial project in Palestine, including the replacement of the indigenous Palestinian people by Jewish immigrants. At present, the Palestinians, displaced or living in the remaining part of Palestinian lands number approximately ten million. The continuous Israeli occupation has failed to bring stability or prosperity to either the region or the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Projections indicate that demographic changes will transform the current situation into an apartheid system, where the majority Palestinians will be ruled by an Israeli minority. The objective of this paper is to suggest a just solution for the Palestinian-Israeli impasse in advocating the establishment a one-state solution, a proposition which appears to be gaining increasing support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper criticizes the words used to critique Israeli repression of Palestinians as ineffective for political struggle and not critical enough. It argues that there is no single word able to comprehend the phenomenon of constant dispossession, violent repression, and righteous blaming of Palestinian resistance as terror. Unable to suggest one comprehensive concept that can at once describe, analyze, and criticize the phenomenon, scholars use inappropriate existing terms—like occupation, Apartheid, colonialism, and Zionism—or invent new words like ethnocracy, politiciside, Bantustine, spaciocide, sociocide, or symbolic genocide. All the concepts are discussed in the paper; it is argued that they are partially correct, but not totally comprehensive. The paper aims to uncover the sophisticated regime that can co-opt every critical word, and present always Israel as a democratic and enlightened regime, a victim of Palestinian violence. It claims that the incapacity to create a critical language is one of the obstacles to develop effective resistance to the regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Israeli planning historically through the ideological prism of Zionism. Urban planning in Israel, studied over the years of statehood, is shown to reflect the ideological changes that have occurred in Israeli society since 1948, the year of the establishment of the state of Israel. The opening section examines the connections between urban planning and ideology, in general. This is followed by the explication of the symbolic importance attached to land ownership and settlement in Zionist theory. The main body of the paper follows this theoretical introduction by way of a review of national urban planning policies and practices in Israel. It demonstrates the influence of Zionist values and their integration with the body of Western planning precedents that inspired the planners. Illustrating this research thesis on ideology and planning practice are examples taken from the desert city of Be’er Sheva. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to sketch a number of geographical patterns pertaining to the ongoing process of confiscation of Palestinian-Arab land in Israel and the 1967 occupied territories. It points out a geographical pattern and process of “enclaving” and “exclaving”, a form of spatial apartheid and exclusionary zoning which was adopted during the pre-state period of Jewish settlement and has continued down to the present day. The centrality of land possession and its transfer to Jewish national and state ownership is shared by almost all political classes in Israel. Even during key points in peace negotiations over the past several years, land confiscation never ceased nor was interrupted. The present paper employs the term “shrinking” to underscore that land confiscation is a continuous process in Palestine/Israel. This of course has both political and social ramifications for the type of state Israel seeks to be, declaring its desire to live in peace and harmony with its own Palestinian citizens and Palestinians elsewhere once a peace deal has been reached. Seen from the perspective of land, its control and use, this paper argues that there is no other alternative in achieving peaceful resolution between Jews in Israel and Palestinians except a return to square one: redefining a new geography for Palestinian villages and towns in Israel and for those many hundreds of villages which were demolished and have since been obliterated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to identify the emergence of the concept “new anti-Semitism” in both public discourse and academic research in Israel. Our main argument is that the new anti-Semitism has emerged in tandem with changing values within Israeli society, primarily the adoption of a mythic-traditional perspective. This historical review focuses on description of a key event: United Nations Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism. We argue that increasing adherence to Jewish tradition goes hand in hand with the assimilation of Jewish myths regarding anti-Semitism. Scholarly discourse about new anti-Semitism is presented through critical study of Shmuel Almog's anthologySin'at Yisrael ledoroteiha(A History of Hatred of Israel). This study is the first to be published that discusses an updated view of anti-Semitism in Israeli public discourse and academic research, emphasizing how the State of Israel has become its object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Karaites are a Jewish group formed between the 8th and 10th centuries. Throughout their history, they lived in constant confrontation with the usually larger and stronger group of Rabbani'im (the Hebrew Karaite name for non-Karaite Jews) over the definition of Jewishness. This confrontation threatened to continue in Israel following Karaite immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. As the politically weaker of the two groups, the Karaites were forced to contend with their double status in Israel-Israeli Jews according to the Law of Return, yet questionable Jews in Rabbani eyes. This threatened not only their perceived Jewish identity but also their 'Israeliness' and national belonging. This paper analyzes stories recounted by members of a Karaite moshav (a smallholder cooperative village) in Israel, which express the social position the community views as fitting and presents the teller's portrayal of its fraught position in Israeli society. It will show that, while describing life on the moshav over the years, these stories convey ideas about belonging, Zionism and Jewishness. This reading into the stories reveals the Karaite's version of their identity, as opposed to that of their Rabbani neighbors who challenge their Jewishness, offering a case study in the cultural construction of a marginalized identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-secularism in Israel is expressed, among other ways, by the growing public acceptance of identities that are neither religious nor secular. This paper is predicated on research of individuals located on the boundaries of Orthodox Religious Zionism. It explores their attitudes on a range of issues and argues that they reflect their post-secularist identities. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with young men and women who chose to abandon the strictures of a Religious Zionist lifestyle as well as those who still remain within its bounds. Various late-modern and post-secular modes of thought and expression were identified in interviewees’ narratives. These included pluralism, relativism, egalitarianism, the personalization of relationships with God, and a disregard for theological arguments based upon scientific findings. It is argued that these attitudes are related to two late-modern social processes: (1) the rise of individual expressivism and (2) the belief in the liberal human-rights ethic. These tendencies cut across the social divide between interviewees who left Religious Zionism and those who chose to remain within the fold, traversing the previously dominant religious–secular social divide and thus serving as yet another indication for the blossoming of new post-secular spaces in Israeli Jewish society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceived as mundane and experienced as mere informative images, innocent and undisputable, road signs can constitute part of a highly invested political strategy for producing a linguistic landscape. This is especially true in multiethnic or multinational states, such as Israel, where the linguistic landscape is being constituted in a contested context. The focus of this paper is on the visual and linguistic representations of Arabic and Hebrew toponyms in the Israeli road-sign system of the Galilee region. They will be examined in terms of positioning and organisation, landscape salience, and modes of transcript. Embracing Pierre Bourdieu's concept of 'symbolic power', our detailed analysis exposes the very anatomy of a bipartite rhetorical policy on the part of Israeli governmental agencies: on the one hand is spatial exclusion of the Palestinian memory through various visual and linguistic manipulations, tactics, and mechanisms at the expense of its own rich toponymic corpus. On the other, there is the establishment of the identity and related imagery of the Hebrew-speaking majority, which supports the Zionist project, regional consciousness, and spatial appropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of mimicry in the construction and deconstruction of social identities has enriched our understanding of power relations considerably. However, as a spatial practice, mimicry has received scant consideration. In what ways can space itself become an object of mimicry? What strategies and practices are involved in this process and with what political objectives? The current paper treats these questions by analyzing processes of mimetic spatial production aiming to transform the Israeli-occupied territory of Mount Hermon into an 'ordinary' western ski resort. Yet this concerted effort produces a variety of tensions and contradictions that ultimately undo the normalization of the colonial space, comprising a test case of the convoluted ways in which mimicry of space, not merely in space, generates various forms of slippage, excess and ambivalence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the bi-nationalistic framework devised by early Zionists and its immediate and long-term implications. Various constituencies including Zionist theoreticians; Arab leaders; and Israeli, Arab, Jewish, and non-Jewish academicians have employed the term 'bi-nationalism'. The manner in which bi-nationalism is discussed varies according to individuals' political goals and their ultimate vision for the state of Israel. The concept of bi-nationalism has acquired new meaning in its application by contemporary proponents that diverges dramatically from its original conception, use, and aims. It is not a fixed and rigidly defined concept, but rather has been interpreted and employed over time by various advocates for either the construction or the dissolution of Zionist society and the Jewish state. This paper highlights key examples of individuals and movements that have espoused bi-nationalist goals, from members of Brit Shalom and Ihud beginning in the 1920s to contemporary Palestinian Arab intellectuals residing in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zionism is not easily defined, especially in terms of its relationship to conflict in the Middle East. Is it possible for Zionism to be harnessed as a Jewish catalyst for peacemaking between Jews and Arabs today? Or is Zionism a zero-sum ideology that tends to perpetuate discrimination toward non-Jews living in Israel and across its checkpoints? This paper seeks to deconstruct the complex reality of Zionism today. It first explores the conventional narrative surrounding Zionism's identity and then deliberates on a few of the more "inclusive" interpretations of Zionism espoused by Jewish thinkers and activists. Following this broad analysis, this article will consider Zionism's flexibility within the diverging political frameworks for peace—that is, the one- and twostate solutions—and its potential contributions to peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political marginalisation of the Palestinians inside Israel between 1948 and 1977 has been widely discussed in the literature. The Israeli Communist Party is often credited with being the sole political organisation which gave an outlet during this period to the critical and oppositional political, literary and artistic activities of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. The Party organs in particular have done their utmost to popularise this claim, which has also become an article of faith for many Arab left-wing intellectuals. The question tackled in this article is: why did the Israeli State grant a margin of freedom to the Communist Party during this period, while denying it to every single Palestinian organisation inside Israel? I discussed this question at a conference on the Left in Palestine held at SOAS in February 2010. While the reader will be spared here the details of the subsequent personal accusations levelled against me in the organs of the Communist Party, I argue here (as in my SOAS paper) that the Communist Party was given this freedom of action for a range of reasons and in particular those to do with the Soviet support for the establishment of Israel and the important pro-Zionist role played the Communist Party during the 1948 War for Palestine. Other reasons are related to the endorsement by the Communist Party of Zionism's tenets and claims in support of the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, including the 'modernising' nature of the Zionist project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Israel’s constructed wall in the West Bank has been discussed in a voluminous literature, some basic questions have largely remained unanswered. This paper tackles two such questions: Firstly, what is the relationship between Zionism and the conception of the wall? This question follows an assumption that the wall’s idea is neither new, nor was it solely triggered by immediate security considerations. Secondly, why do European countries (in addition to the U.S.) oppose the imposition of sanctions against Israel for breaching international law by building the wall? A post-colonial perspective has been employed to discuss the role that borders (particularly hard ones) have assumed in the colonial encounter in the stages of expansive and contraction colonialism. Moreover, through this perspective, the common experience of Israel and the European colonial heritage with regard boundaries is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores three successive anniversary celebrations of Tel- Aviv—1929, 1934, and 1959—as an aspect of the cultural and political history of the city. The three anniversaries examined in this paper were celebrated in the "First Hebrew City" phase of the cultural history of Tel-Aviv and, accordingly, their major theme was Tel-Aviv as a Zionist success story. The historical analysis of three successive anniversaries affords an opportunity to discern continuities in the form of festive patterns and recurrent ideological themes. It also highlights period-specific concerns and political contingencies underlying particular anniversary celebrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jewish fundamentalism (a contested term that does not sit easily with the non-literal nature of much rabbinic reading of the Bible) has many sources and variants, but amongst these the most belligerent is the mode of fundamentalism expressed by some ‘strictly orthodox’ Jews in Israel. These Jews tend to justify their continued agitation for a ‘greater Israel’, accompanied by hostility not only towards Palestinians but also towards secular and politically more liberal Jews, in terms of literalist readings of Torah. This paper approaches this topic ‘sideways’ (and hence, perhaps, psychoanalytically) through tracking a remarkable reading by Emmanuel Levinas of the Talmudic passage dealing with the biblical account of the spies sent by Moses to Canaan. Levinas' ambivalent shifts between understanding these spies as motivated by an ethical refusal to see themselves as having a right to the land, and seeing them (more conventionally) as having too little faith, perhaps reflects the operations of a ‘guilt’ about which psychoanalysis may have something to say. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 2006, leading Palestinian Arab intellectuals, political leaders, and activists in Israel compiled The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. The document rejected the designation of Israel as a Jewish State, which they argued was exclusionary and denied the Arabs full equality. The document went on to de-legitimize the Zionist enterprise as "colonialist" and "imperialist", but at the same time sought to obtain recognition of the Palestinians in Israel by the Jewish majority as a national minority. This paper argues that while recognition of the Palestinians in Israel as a national minority is an eminently reasonable demand, the Jewish majority would find it difficult to accept so long as the national rights of the Jewish majority were simultaneously denied by the Palestinian citizens of Israel. It is not what the Palestinian minority in Israel demands for itself that is the problem, but rather the rights it seeks to deny the Jewish majority, especially the right to self-determination that is, inter alia, the right of the majority to define the state as it sees fit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most analyses and commentary surrounding the construction of Israel's security barrier or fence have focused on the adverse impact this has had on bilateral relations with the Palestinian Authority, its institutions and people. For most Israelis, such concerns voiced by the Palestinians themselves as well as the wider international community denies agency to their physical security in the face of an Islamist nemesis that apparently brooks no compromise. But while the perceived role of the barrier in reducing terrorist attacks inside Israel has enjoyed widespread approbation among Israelis, less attention has been devoted to the impact that the barrier has had upon competing ideas and identities over the very nature of Zionism itself. As such, this paper argues that the true impact of the barrier is as much about ensuring the coherence of Israel's ideological boundaries as it is about enhancing the physical protection of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses two intellectual models that attempted to grant religious meaning to Zionism and the Jewish State without turning them into non-rational religious entities. Rabbi Uziel's model, like that of Rabbi Kook, interprets the development of the State within the framework of the messianic idea. However, while Rabbi Kook speaks in terms of the messianic approach of the Kabbalah, Rabbi Uziel formulated his messianic approach on the rational philosophy of Maimonides. As a result, the State is not ascribed some absolute value—after all, no messianic State is a value in itself, but is seen as a means for the individual to reach religious fulfillment. Therefore, the test for the State will be whether it meets the halachic and moral standards that represent the only framework within which reality takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zionist movement was the flagship of territorial socialization until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The establishment of the state was a turning point in modern Jewish history because some goals of the Zionist movement were achieved and an independent political entity with international recognition was established. The state itself continued to concern itself with territorial education in order to increase the citizens' identification with the territory. By emphasizing the Zionist-Jewish aspect of the subject, Geography was seen to assist in establishing a connection for the children of immigrants with their new country. Geography was not only intended to convey knowledge about the Land of Israel, but also, principally, to assist children's emotional absorption in the country, through transfer of knowledge about Israel's past, landscapes, and nature. How has the teaching of geography changed over the last century in the Land of Israel? Which social ideas and which fields of geographic thought have shaped the teaching of the discipline, the curriculum, and the development of school textbooks? These are some of the central questions of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of persisting deprivation, marginalized ethno-classes generally mobilize against their governments and/or against rival groups. Two key arenas of such mobilization are extra-parliamentary protest and local electoral campaigning. The paper examines these arenas in Israel’s peripheral ‘development towns’, established during the 1950s, and populated primarily by “Mizrahim”—Jews who migrated to Israel from the Muslim world. The public protest by Mizrahim in the towns has been consistent, though not intense. Generally, it voiced ‘external’ demand to the state for a fairer share of public resources, falling within the ‘legitimate’ boundaries of Zionist political discourse. In local elections, however, the Mizrahim raised a more militant political voice, focusing mainly on their competition against the large number of ‘Russians’ immigrants who arrived during the 1990s. Local election campaigns often transgressed the acceptable boundaries of Zionist discourse, by questioning the core values of immigrant absorption and Jewish unity. In explaining the different agendas and discourses, we argue that the answer is rooted in two related phenomena. First, on a national level, Mizrahi identity at the Israeli periphery has been ‘trapped’ by the settlement agendas of the Zionist project. The local election discourse, however, demonstrates the centrality of place for the Mizrahim in both their communal identity and political power. While the towns were created as peripheral and impoverished places in the attempt to Judaize the land, they have now become a significant, and threatened, ethnic and political resource. The external and internal discourses therefore combine as two key ‘layers’ in the making of the peripheral Mizrahi ethno-class. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For Theodor Herzl, Zionism, in the sense of a political movement to establish a sovereign Jewish state, offered the only workable solution to the problem of antisemitism. Some commentators today speak of a 'new antisemitism'. They claim, first, that there is a new wave or outbreak of hostility towards Jews that began with the start of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000 and is continuing at the present time. Second, and more fundamentally, the 'new antisemitism' is said to involve a new form or type of hostility towards Jews: hostility towards Israel. This is the claim under discussion in Klug's paper. The claim implies an equivalence between (a) the individual Jew in the old or classical version of antisemitism and (b) the state of Israel in the new or modern variety. Klug argues that this concept is confused and that the use to which it is put gives a distorted picture of the facts. He begins by recalling classical antisemitism, the kind that led to the persecution of European Jewry to which Herzl's Zionism was a reaction. On this basis, he briefly reformulates the question of whether and when hostility towards Israel is antisemitic. He then discusses the so-called new form of antisemitism, especially the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. He concludes by revisiting Herzl's vision in light of the situation today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore a specific variant of multicultural education in Israel that developed within the dominant Jewish cultural identity, that is the claim of Jews from Islamic countries (Mizrahi Jews) for educational autonomy. This demand arose against the backdrop of an aggressive nationalist ideology – Zionism – that claimed to represent all Jews, and yet was too ambivalent toward its non-European Jewish subjects. The Mizrahi Jews' dual identity, as Jews and as products of the Arab culture, conflated with the state's problematic self-conception as both Jewish and democratic. This phenomenon, apparently, is evidenced by the two types of multicultural responses that developed within the Mizrahi sector: a critical multiculturalism with a social-democratic character on the one hand, and an autonomist multiculturalism with fundamentalist features on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]